M. Berkeley: For Mrs Tomoyasu (arr. for choir & chamber ensemble)
Expected to ship in 1-2 weeks.
- Composer: Michael Berkeley (1948-)
- Format: Full Score
- Instrumentation (this edition): SATB Choir, Chamber Ensemble
- Originally for: SATB Choir, Soprano, Orchestra, Baritone
- Work: For Mrs Tomoyasu from Or Shall We Die? (Oratorio) (1983)
- Work Language: English
- ISBN:
- Size: 9.5 x 13 inches
- Pages: 14
Description
The oratorio or Shall We Die? was commissioned from Ian McEwan and Michael Berkeley by the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus. It was first performed in 1983, the year that Ronald Reagan declared that a nuclear conflict in Europe was not only thinkable but winnable; cruise missiles came to Britain; Heseltine was appointed by Thatcher to extinguish CND; Professions for World Disarmament and Development was formed at the suggestion of Fenner Brockway and MANA was formed as one of those professional peace groups.
This piece is the chamber version of the soprano aria in section five of the work which forms the heart of the oratorio.
Mrs Tomoyasu was a young woman in 1945 when her nine year-old daughter died in her arms after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. She told her story to Jonathan Dimbleby in his television film in Evidence: The Bomb, and her words changed by the librettist, Ian McEwan, only to make smoother rhythms were used directly in the text.
M. Berkeley: For Mrs Tomoyasu (arr. for choir & chamber ensemble)
